Colorado Bound now with Pics
- Thread starter bikemikewcr
- Start date
Iceman24
Well-Known Member
bikemikewcr; man, I'm envious - wish I was riding along. Awesome diary & pics so keep them coming & ride safe. You should sell the old mill pic to hallmark (nice shot). Keep safe & dry - if you plan to pass through the Midwest, watch out for all our never-ending t-storms...:rider
bikemikewcr
Active Member
Day 3 - Memphis Blues
This morning came around real fast as I spent some time out to dinner and a few coldies with a friend and had some time to give the bike a bath to get her all clean agian after all of the rain from the prior two days and the next thing I knew it was just about 1:00am. I awoke to the nice smell of some freshly brewed coffee so I climbed out of bed, poured a cup and headed to the garage to pack the bike and prepare for the days adventure. Today I am headed for Memphis, TN. When I pulled the bike out of the garage the humidity hit me like a brick wall and I could tell that it would be a warm day. I started the day taking 75 to 20 through Rome to 411 to 72 through Huntsville, Alabama over to Natchez Trace. After that I took 69 to 128 to 57 into Memphis. There was some decent riding on this leg of the trip and some not so good. You know when you pass the Police station and they have razor wire around it to keep the rif raf out you are not in a good part of town. Well I managed to get my tail out of there and get to where I needed to be. I arrived in Memphis, TN after 430 miles today with great weather. I managed to hit Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. This brings the total to 11 states and 1,407 miles so far. Time to head to Beal Street for some dinner, a coldie or two and listen to some music. Here are some pics from the day.
The first few pics are from Natchez Trace and the one of my helmet was just something a bit different and the last one was going over a bridge but I can not remember where this was at.
This morning came around real fast as I spent some time out to dinner and a few coldies with a friend and had some time to give the bike a bath to get her all clean agian after all of the rain from the prior two days and the next thing I knew it was just about 1:00am. I awoke to the nice smell of some freshly brewed coffee so I climbed out of bed, poured a cup and headed to the garage to pack the bike and prepare for the days adventure. Today I am headed for Memphis, TN. When I pulled the bike out of the garage the humidity hit me like a brick wall and I could tell that it would be a warm day. I started the day taking 75 to 20 through Rome to 411 to 72 through Huntsville, Alabama over to Natchez Trace. After that I took 69 to 128 to 57 into Memphis. There was some decent riding on this leg of the trip and some not so good. You know when you pass the Police station and they have razor wire around it to keep the rif raf out you are not in a good part of town. Well I managed to get my tail out of there and get to where I needed to be. I arrived in Memphis, TN after 430 miles today with great weather. I managed to hit Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. This brings the total to 11 states and 1,407 miles so far. Time to head to Beal Street for some dinner, a coldie or two and listen to some music. Here are some pics from the day.
The first few pics are from Natchez Trace and the one of my helmet was just something a bit different and the last one was going over a bridge but I can not remember where this was at.
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bikemikewcr
Active Member
bikemikewcr
Active Member
bikemikewcr
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Day 4 - The day of the Iron But
Today started off with alarm sounding at 4:00am and coffee ready by 4:10am. I forgot to mention on the post from day 3 that when I arrived at the Holiday Inn to check in last night I was informed that they were oversold and were sending me about 1/2 of a block away to the Doubletree Hotel. While I was a bit disappointed, I can totally understand that this happens as I am in the hotel industry. The good thing about this is that there was no out of pocket cost for the room for this night since they had to relocate me they had to cover the charges. When I got to the Doubletree I was a bit nervous about the parking situation as the lot that they use is an open lot next to the Greyhound Bus station. Parking my bike there was not going to happen. I could already hear the valet in my head calling his friend and letting him know that there is a nice HD parked in the lot, come and get it. This prompted me to walk back over to the Holiday Inn and speak with the manager on duty at the front desk to explain my situation. You see, they have a parking garage attached to the hotel and the General Manager had already told me a great place to park the bike where it would be watched after when I spoke to him the week before I left for the trip. So into the parking garage I went and locked her all up with the Kryptonite New York wheel lock and the alarm with a pager. After this I headed back to my room at the Doubletree to clean the road grime off of me before having a nice cold beer and heading to dinner on Beale Street. Back to today, I had the starting witness complete the paperwork that I needed for the documentation for the Iron But certificate at 5:05am. He also looked at me like I had three heads when I told him what is was for and where I would end up tonight. At 5:15am I was on the bike and headed to Route 40 west. I was on the highway for about 45 minutes before the sun rose and it was already in the high 70's but I managed to get some pictures in my mirror of the sun rising. I knew today would be extremely warm and that keeping hydrated was going to be a key role in keeping my mind and body in a good zone for the long ride to Santa Fe, NM. Per the advice of several outstanding members on this forum to be aware of the road conditions and all of the trucks I was set to high on my radar zone as far as vision and awareness goes. As the day went along and the further west I got the temps kept rising up and up. Fuel stops today took a bit longer as I had to keep more detailed records using the forms necessary for documentation to earn the But Burner certificate but that was welcomed. This allowed me a bit more time to consume massive quantities of water and Gatorade. On days like this you have to replenish those electrolytes as well. I did however keep the speed up a bit this day to make up for the more frequent and longer stops to make up some of the time. At one of the rest stops somewhere in Texas I noticed that the front latch on my tourpack had gone missing to gremlins of the highway. I was not very happy about this as now the tourpack could not be locked and this concerned me for when I would be at stops along the way and overnight. I have included a picture of this below. After this stop I was anxious to get out of Texas and cross into New Mexico. I stopped in New Mexico to top off the tank and when I was leaving the sun started to set so I had to snap a picture real quick and get back on the road. When I was at the stop sign exiting the gas station a pickup truck pulled up and asked me what way I was going and I told him West. He tried to encourage me not to go that way because of a storm that he had just come through as he was heading east. He said that it had been hailing but all I could see was a beautiful sunset so to the west I went. Well I got down the road about 40 miles and and the ground was wet but was starting to dry out. I figured the storm had pushed out and I would not have any problems. While this was true, I later found out that I missed the big storm that dropped 6 inch diameter hail over a large portion of New Mexico. I can not imagine what that would have been like riding into that. From here I was making good time to get to Santa Fe but needed fuel in a bad way. When I filled the tank it took 4.78 gallons, talk about pushing it to the limit but I had no idea that there would not be many gas stations along this route. I finally pulled into the gas station to just top off the tank when I arrived in Santa Fe at 11:15pm, two time zones west from where I started from. I called my friends who I was meeting from Las Vegas and let them know that I would be to the hotel in 5 minutes. When I got there David was waiting in the parking lot with a nice cold beer for me and willing hands to help me unpack the bike for the night. It was great seing his face there as we try to do a road trip together every year and we have been best friends since we were 4 years old. All said and done I covered 1,030 miles in 18 hours and 4 states today, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. Total millage so far is 2,438 and I have now been through 15 states.
Today started off with alarm sounding at 4:00am and coffee ready by 4:10am. I forgot to mention on the post from day 3 that when I arrived at the Holiday Inn to check in last night I was informed that they were oversold and were sending me about 1/2 of a block away to the Doubletree Hotel. While I was a bit disappointed, I can totally understand that this happens as I am in the hotel industry. The good thing about this is that there was no out of pocket cost for the room for this night since they had to relocate me they had to cover the charges. When I got to the Doubletree I was a bit nervous about the parking situation as the lot that they use is an open lot next to the Greyhound Bus station. Parking my bike there was not going to happen. I could already hear the valet in my head calling his friend and letting him know that there is a nice HD parked in the lot, come and get it. This prompted me to walk back over to the Holiday Inn and speak with the manager on duty at the front desk to explain my situation. You see, they have a parking garage attached to the hotel and the General Manager had already told me a great place to park the bike where it would be watched after when I spoke to him the week before I left for the trip. So into the parking garage I went and locked her all up with the Kryptonite New York wheel lock and the alarm with a pager. After this I headed back to my room at the Doubletree to clean the road grime off of me before having a nice cold beer and heading to dinner on Beale Street. Back to today, I had the starting witness complete the paperwork that I needed for the documentation for the Iron But certificate at 5:05am. He also looked at me like I had three heads when I told him what is was for and where I would end up tonight. At 5:15am I was on the bike and headed to Route 40 west. I was on the highway for about 45 minutes before the sun rose and it was already in the high 70's but I managed to get some pictures in my mirror of the sun rising. I knew today would be extremely warm and that keeping hydrated was going to be a key role in keeping my mind and body in a good zone for the long ride to Santa Fe, NM. Per the advice of several outstanding members on this forum to be aware of the road conditions and all of the trucks I was set to high on my radar zone as far as vision and awareness goes. As the day went along and the further west I got the temps kept rising up and up. Fuel stops today took a bit longer as I had to keep more detailed records using the forms necessary for documentation to earn the But Burner certificate but that was welcomed. This allowed me a bit more time to consume massive quantities of water and Gatorade. On days like this you have to replenish those electrolytes as well. I did however keep the speed up a bit this day to make up for the more frequent and longer stops to make up some of the time. At one of the rest stops somewhere in Texas I noticed that the front latch on my tourpack had gone missing to gremlins of the highway. I was not very happy about this as now the tourpack could not be locked and this concerned me for when I would be at stops along the way and overnight. I have included a picture of this below. After this stop I was anxious to get out of Texas and cross into New Mexico. I stopped in New Mexico to top off the tank and when I was leaving the sun started to set so I had to snap a picture real quick and get back on the road. When I was at the stop sign exiting the gas station a pickup truck pulled up and asked me what way I was going and I told him West. He tried to encourage me not to go that way because of a storm that he had just come through as he was heading east. He said that it had been hailing but all I could see was a beautiful sunset so to the west I went. Well I got down the road about 40 miles and and the ground was wet but was starting to dry out. I figured the storm had pushed out and I would not have any problems. While this was true, I later found out that I missed the big storm that dropped 6 inch diameter hail over a large portion of New Mexico. I can not imagine what that would have been like riding into that. From here I was making good time to get to Santa Fe but needed fuel in a bad way. When I filled the tank it took 4.78 gallons, talk about pushing it to the limit but I had no idea that there would not be many gas stations along this route. I finally pulled into the gas station to just top off the tank when I arrived in Santa Fe at 11:15pm, two time zones west from where I started from. I called my friends who I was meeting from Las Vegas and let them know that I would be to the hotel in 5 minutes. When I got there David was waiting in the parking lot with a nice cold beer for me and willing hands to help me unpack the bike for the night. It was great seing his face there as we try to do a road trip together every year and we have been best friends since we were 4 years old. All said and done I covered 1,030 miles in 18 hours and 4 states today, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. Total millage so far is 2,438 and I have now been through 15 states.
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bikemikewcr
Active Member
Nice cruise to toughen the ol' butt a bit...? Nice ride, can that be RichardS' seat making your ride more comfortable...and improving your endurance? 
bikemikewcr
Active Member
Nice cruise to toughen the ol' butt a bit...? Nice ride, can that be RichardS' seat making your ride more comfortable...and improving your endurance?
I would say yes. I do not think that I would have been as comfortable or in as good of shape after the 1,030 miles if I were on the stock seat. That seat sure is comfy for me.